Last week didn't feel very Thanksgiving-y to me. We had just suffered a week of layoffs at Quantum (180 people, on top of the slashings my team suffered in August...) and the plants in the US were shut down - yet I still had to "work" because Europe, obviously, does not celebrate Thanksgiving. The kids were in school, there were spelling tests and play dates and visits to the library...
The bright spot was Pat's birthday on Tuesday- we celebrated at the local pub The George which has thankfully been totally remodeled on the inside - new owners, new chefs, new decor, new clientele - it is so nice to have a real pub in the village. Until now, we did not even darken the doorsteps of any of the three crappy pubs in Brixworth. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAT!!!!!!
Anyway, I took "vacation" on Thursday and mostly just messed around the house, worked out and, oh yeah, TOOK EVERYTHING OUT OF THE GD KITCHEN because it is being remodeled on Monday - yes, another fantastic adventure in a Collins kitchen. After the "flood" in May, which basically ruined the cabinets and nearly poisoned the whole family with mold spores, we are finally having new cabinets installed. This will be the THIRD time I have emptied all of the cupboards in this kitchen expecting this remodeling to be done. WHAT A PAIN IN THE ASSSSSSSSSS! I'll be sure to let you know how it goes... They are telling me it will only take a week to complete. We are, understandably skeptical. Of course, our experience in Colorado was an extreme version of "what could go wrong, did go wrong" I honestly nearly laughed at the contractor when he told me they would be done by Friday HA!
We also took Friday off, took the kids out of school and waded through the fog and chill and headed out to Bath to take in the famous Christmas market that was on. After sitting in traffic in Bath for over an hour, we finally found a park and ride and made our way to the market. It was just the kind of thing I love - stalls with ornaments, and jewelry and trinkets and gadgets and mulled wine and mince pies, cheeses and chocolates, scarves and soaps - sigh, I was in heaven... On the way out of Bath we sat in traffic for another 45 minutes and headed out to our hotel - the traffic in that city was unholy to be sure....
Bath Abbey - Bath is called Bath because of the amazing remains of an ancient Roman Bath and Temple - didn't visit this time because I was in a shopping frenzy - but we've been before and will take the kids before we go back to the US :)
A few of the magical stalls at the Bath Christmas Market
More Bath Christmas Market
On Saturday we decided to go to Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Again, we hit ungodly traffic - turns out there was a big rugby match on - Wales vs. Australia. We checked out Millineum Stadium and the big weird Millineum Centre, which Torchwood/Dr. Who fans will recognize immediately...
Cardiff Millineum Center - I'm slightly embarassed to say that I recognize this from Torchwood...
We were going to try to check out Cardiff Castle, but there was no parking because of the Rugby, so we bagged it and went to a castle about 5 miles away called Caerphilly Castle. That's the crazy thing about Wales in particular, there are castles EVERYWHERE! :)
Caerfilly Castle
It was colder than a brass monkey biting a witches tit out there -seriously, the wind, and the damp and the ugh, it was so frigging cold... but, although we bitch about more than we did when we first moved here, we still didn't let it stop us from checking things out with the enthusiasm of a summer tourist in a baseball cap (no one wears those here, btw...) bermudas and a loud hawaiian shirt. We made the compulsory visit to the toilets - THREE TIMES!!! and wandered all about this ruined castle built in the 12th century.
I never get tired of touring castles and trying to imagine what it must have been like to live during those time... I mean, we were freezing our bits and bobs off, and we had Thinsulate and polar fleece and Windstopper and YKK zippers, not to mention a nice diesel motor with a fantastic heater to pile into after our adventure - how must the poor people who lived here 800 years ago have felt dealing with the damp and the cold and the drafts and wet and the clouds and oh my, I just cannot imagine! We got it good, you know!? Anyway, cool castle, check the pix.
Today we had to finish getting ready for our kitchenless week (*snicker* I almost got through that without laughing! A week, come on!) Ordered ready meals to be delivered with my shopping from Tesco tommorrow, boiled up a bunch of rice and noodles for my picky miss Zoe, finished moving all of the food and dishes out of the kitchen, did a bit of tidying up, worked on my painting - oh yeah, I'm taking an art class - I really love it - It's nice to finally have a hobby of my own that I really enjoy and I am able to make time for - its good having older children, I must say - as much as I miss having babies, it is nice to have time for myself now :)
Then, I made a little Thanksgiving dinner. We have all of our kitchen crap in the dining room (which I had been using for all of my art stuff, that is now crammed in a corner...) The dining room table has all the dishes and pans and canisters on it and under it. In front of the dining room table is the kitchen table. This would not bother me so much, except, as I mentioned this is the THIRD GD TIME WE'VE DONE THIS since we'be been here!!! ACK! Oh well... The meal was nice and we all went around the table talking about what we are thankful for, and I found myself missing my family and Pat's family...
As I washed the dishes, I thought of the dozens of times I've stood in other people's kitchens listening to the football game in the family room and the sound of little kids running up and down the stairs, me washing while another family member was rinsing, while yet another was drying and putting away. Depending on who's house we were at, I might have a couple of glasses of wine under my belt, and a third sitting in the windowsill above the sink. Once the dishes were done, we busted out the desserts and got a whole new set of dishes dirty again - once those were clean, it was time to get the leftovers out so everyone could have a sandwich (this was a big tradition at my grandmother's house) I actually used to have very mixed feelings about these holiday gatherings - all of the rigamaroll to get somewhere at the appointed time with the assigned dish, seeing people I hadn't seen since the 4th of July or before, catching up, remembering old times, looking at someone's photos from a big vacation, or new baby... While our little dinner with just the 4 of us was wonderful and intimate - I managed to cook just enough, because we don't have room in the microscopic excuse for a fridge we have for leftovers - still had the sounds of kids running around and the glass of wine... I do have to say, though, I missed the family bit, the rigamaroll, the pictures of the big vacation, baby, wedding, the catching up... And I'm glad for all the times I took the trouble to go to those sometimes dreaded family events, because like all memories of things and events past, I only remember the good parts it is nice to have such lovely memories when you are so very far from home during this special time of year... Plus, they don't have frigging pumpkin pie or jellied cranberry sauce here - no wonder the Pilgrims bailed!
Cheers!
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